Effects of finger and mouse pointing on learning from online split-attention examples.

Background: Self-management of cognitive load is a recent development in cognitive load theory. Finger pointing has been shown to be a potential self-management strategy to support learning from spatially separated, but mutually referring text and pictures (i.e.

Investigating the role of hand perspective in learning from procedural animations.

Background: Research indicates that animations presenting procedural instructions lead to better learning if the animation displays the procedural task from a first-person perspective (over-the-shoulder) compared to a third-person perspective (face-to-face).

Aims: This study extends view-perspective research by investigating whether the observation of human hands completing manipulative tasks in an animation are necessary or not.

Sample: Sixty university students participated in the study.

Five Strategies for Optimizing Instructional Materials: Instructor- and Learner-Managed Cognitive Load.

Researchers of cognitive load theory and the cognitive theory of multimedia learning have identified several strategies to optimize instructional materials. In this review article we focus on five of these strategies or solutions to problematic instructional designs in multimedia learning: (a) the multimedia principle (use visualizations and drawings to complement texts); (b) the split-attention effect or spatial contiguity principle (show texts contiguously or integrated with visualizations); (c) the redundancy effect, alike the coherence principle (remove nonessential learning information); (d) the signaling principle (cue or signal essential learning information); and (e) the transient information effect or segmenting principle (segment or control the pace of animations and videos). Usually, both cognitive theories have investigated solutions that instructors, teachers, and designers should pursue to optimize students' learning.

Does Object Size Matter With Regard to the Mental Simulation of Object Orientation?

Language comprehenders have been arguing to mentally represent the implied orientation of objects. However, compared to the effects of shape, size, and color, the effect of orientation is rather small. We examined a potential explanation for the relatively low magnitude of the orientation effect: Object size moderates the orientation effect.

Does gesture strengthen sensorimotor knowledge of objects? The case of the size-weight illusion.

Co-speech gestures have been proposed to strengthen sensorimotor knowledge related to objects' weight and manipulability. This pre-registered study (https://www.osf.

Does the Component Processes Task Assess Text-Based Inferences Important for Reading Comprehension? A Path Analysis in Primary School Children.

Using a component processes task (CPT) that differentiates between higher-level cognitive processes of reading comprehension provides important advantages over commonly used general reading comprehension assessments. The present study contributes to further development of the CPT by evaluating the relative contributions of its components (text memory, text inferencing, and knowledge integration) and working memory to general reading comprehension within a single study using path analyses. Participants were 173 third- and fourth-grade children.

Word Problem Solving in Contemporary Math Education: A Plea for Reading Comprehension Skills Training.

Successfully solving mathematical word problems requires both mental representation skills and reading comprehension skills. In Realistic Math Education (RME), however, students primarily learn to apply the first of these skills (i.e.

Training Inference Making Skills Using a Situation Model Approach Improves Reading Comprehension.

This study aimed to enhance third and fourth graders' text comprehension at the situation model level. Therefore, we tested a reading strategy training developed to target inference making skills, which are widely considered to be pivotal to situation model construction. The training was grounded in contemporary literature on situation model-based inference making and addressed the source (text-based versus knowledge-based), type (necessary versus unnecessary for (re-)establishing coherence), and depth of an inference (making single lexical inferences versus combining multiple lexical inferences), as well as the type of searching strategy (forward versus backward).

What can measures of text comprehension tell us about creative text production?

Evidence is accumulating that the level of text comprehension is dependent on the situatedness and sensory richness of a child's mental representation formed during reading. This study investigated whether these factors involved in text comprehension also serve a functional role in writing a narrative. Direct influences of situatedness and sensory richness as well as indirect influences via the number of sensory and situational words on the creativity (i.